Cold day, warm bowl

So it wasn’t the big snow storm we were all hoping for. Despite wearing their pajamas inside-out last night, school was not canceled, and we could still see grass at the end of the day today. Snow or no snow, it was a good day to cook something warm to eat. I went for a run early, then spent the day catching up on computer stuff. So, while I was sitting in the kitchen staring at my screen, a bird was roasting in the oven.

Chicken Cassoulet: Even Zoe didn't complain about the onions in this one

A friend had told me about a meal she ate at the Wine Bar & Bistro on Lark St a few weeks back, and typical for me, I couldn’t get it out of my head. It was a chicken cassoulet, big white beans and bacon in place of sausage. She described it as creamy, warm and just salty enough from the bits of bacon. Sounds good, right?
Today, I could stand it no longer. I had to try to recreate this chicken cassoulet. I had already bought a small chicken earlier this week. All I was missing was the bacon. Wisely, I bought just a few strips at McCarroll’s. That’s all I needed and buying a whole package usually leads to me standing at the counter, eating slice after slice. I bought seven slices, cooked them all, ate one, and used the rest in my cassoulet. Just the right amount to satisfy the cook’s munchies, and have really good smoky, salty flavor in my dish.
This is definitely not an authentic cassoulet, just those flavors in my own version. Lucy and Zoe LOVED this dish (Paul and I did, too.) Elliot doesn’t love chicken so it took a little convincing. I started with a whole chicken, but you could do chicken breasts, thighs, or even a rotisserie. I used half of the meat from the bird I roasted, and then made stock today as well. Looks like we’ll be having chicken soup tomorrow.

In a large skillet cook the bacon until crisp. Blot the cooked bacon on paper towels. Drain off all but a T. of bacon fat, and return the pan to medium heat. Add the onion and cook, scraping up the bits of bacon. Add the garlic, shallot, rosemary and tomatoes and cook until very tender, about 10 minutes. Stir often to prevent burning. Add the beans and a cup or two broth. Crumble the bacon and add. Use the back of a fork to mash the beans. Stir in the chicken, and more broth, depending on how soupy you want the dish to be. Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes or so, stirring and adding more broth as necessary. Taste and season with salt and pepper. The bacon adds a lot of salt, so go easy. I added a little vinegar at the end, because I thought it needed a little acidity. This would also be nice with thick carrot slices added with the garlic.
Serve with good bread and a green salad.This version served five of us exactly, no leftovers.

This dish was fantastic! It tastes like something that coooks for hours, but was really very quick and easy. And it wasn’t even what I’d planned for dinner.

I’d started to make the beef stew that you blogged about but after browning the beef, realized it would never be ready in time for dinner. I then remembered your Chicken Cassoulet and happily realized we had all the ingredients for that (except for the grape tomatoes which my kids would have picked out anyway).

A little bit of bacon makes this dish incredibly flavorful and the balsamic at the end was a perfect addition that I never would have thought of. Everyone enjoyed this. Thanks for saving dinner at our house tonight!!

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